Heretofore it has been common practice in connection with the removal of water tubes or fire tubes from within a steam boiler for subsequent replacement to first cut the installed tubes adjacent their header-mounted ends with a cutting torch, to next remove the cut tube lengths, and afterwards forcefully drive the severed tube ends out of engagement with the boiler headers. Such conventional practice is time consuming, expensive to accomplish, and frequently results in damage to the tube mounting bores provided in the boiler headers. Each damaged tube mounting bore in a tube header must be repaired by welding, re-drilling, and honing to proper size for later re-use.
We have discovered a novel method and apparatus that may be utilized to effect the removal of boiler-tube ends from their mountings within a boiler header without causing damage to the co-operating header tube mounting bores, thus eliminating the necessity for subsequent header metal repair and header bore re-drilling and honing.
Other advantages and objectives of the invention will become apparent in the course of considering the descriptions, drawings, and claims which follow.